Constituent Cortes is the description of Spain's parliament, the Cortes

Cortes Generales

The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...

, when convened as a constituent assembly

Constituent assembly

A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...

.

In the 20th century, only one Constituent Cortes was officially opened (Cortes are "opened" in accordance with a mediaeval royal proclamation), and that was the Republican

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 Cortes in 1931.

The Cortes in 1977 enacted the new Spanish constitution

Constitution of Spain

Spain's first Constitution was passed in 1812. A list of the different Spanish constitutional laws follows:During Franco's dictatorship, there were many attempts to create stable institutions that did not emanate from the dictator as they did in the post-war period...

. However, it was never officially considered "constituent", as the assembly chosen in the 1977 general election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

s was not mandated to consider a new constitution, but to rule under the constitution of the former dictatorship - the so called Leyes Fundamentales (fundamental laws). However, there was significant pressure from King Juan Carlos

Juan Carlos I of Spain

Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...

 for the 1977 Cortes to draft a new constitution, and it is consequently frequently treated much like a constituent Cortes.

See also

• Convention Parliament
• Constitutional convention (political meeting)
  Constitutional convention (political meeting)
  A constitutional convention is now a gathering for the purpose of writing a new constitution or revising an existing constitution. A general constitutional convention is called to create the first constitution of a political unit or to entirely replace an existing constitution...
  
  
• Spanish transition to democracy
  Spanish transition to democracy
  The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...